Foot operated effects pedals (sometimes referred to as “stomp boxes”) are frequently used by guitarists and other musicians to modulate or alter the sound of a musical instrument. They typically consist of an electronic circuit housed inside a relatively small enclosure, and a plurality of control knobs, foot-switches, toggle-switches, connectors, and the like.
The electronic circuit processes the incoming instrument signal before outputting it to an amplification system. Control knobs allow the user to adjust various key parameters of the electronic circuit. Foot-switches allow the musician to conveniently actuate the effect on and off using his foot.
The fast growing effects pedals market has provided musicians with hundreds, if not thousands of pedals of various types and sizes to choose from. New standards of pedal layout and quality have also been established by increasing numbers of boutique pedal manufacturers, making available to a greater number of musicians effects pedals that were only meant to be used by professionals in the past.
Musicians, especially guitarists, have learned to use and combine multiple effects pedals in order to create various sound effects which are typically described as various textures, colors, and shades of sounds. While being time consuming due to the almost endless pedal combinations and possibilities, finding the right combination is very rewarding and desirable for the tone-conscious musician.
The trend of using multiple effects pedals has, in turn, led manufacturers towards designing smaller, more compact pedals, so that a large number of them can be arranged onto reasonable sized pedal-boards. Pedal-boards are essentially platforms on which a plurality of effects pedals, audio interfaces, and power supplies are attached and arranged on.
The typical distance between the on/off foot-switch and the closest control knob, on today's effects pedals, can vary anywhere between 0.75 inches to 1.5 inches at most. Stepping on the on/off foot-switch without inadvertently disturbing or stepping on the control knobs can therefore be a challenging task. This challenge is even greater if the pedal sits in between other pedals on a tightly packed pedal-board. There is always a risk of accidentally disturbing the adjacent control knob's setting, and this scenario is simply not acceptable in the middle of a stage performance.
Control knobs settings can also be disturbed when musicians transport their effects pedals or pedal-boards inside light-weight soft bag (sometimes referred to as “gig bags”). The friction between the inner surfaces of the bag and the pedals often causes the control knobs to inadvertently move during transport, forcing the musicians to constantly reset the knobs positions before using the pedals.
Several related art arrangements are known to provide locking devices to securely hold a control knob setting. Devices shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,125 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,758 work essentially by applying to the control knob or to the control shaft a sufficient drag force so to resist knob rotation from some external perturbations, like vibrations, or other small forces. However, an ‘on the fly’ operation of the control knob is impossible, since it requires the user to first unlock the locking device, set the knob position, and then re-lock the locking device. Performing musicians need to quickly change their knobs settings on one or more pedals in between songs during a set. They typically have a handful of seconds to tweak several knobs, which is impractical with these locking systems in place. Additionally, these locking devices do not provide any protection to the control knobs themselves and thus the knobs may fall off or otherwise become inadvertently damaged.
Unfortunately, many touring musicians tend to use duct tape and the like to secure their control knob settings. The tape is generally applied in a way that completely covers the control knob and part of the surrounding pedal surface, thus preventing the knob from moving. In this set-and-forget approach, neither a visual inspection, nor an ‘on the fly’ adjustment of the knob setting is possible.
The Company Hardwire™ has developed a proprietary device known as Stomplock™. It is essentially a molded rubber cover that achieves the same function as the duct tape method but in a more elaborate way. However, Stomplock™ cannot be applied to individual knobs and is suffers from the same set-and-forget solution drawbacks mentioned above.
Therefore, a need exists for novel protective apparatuses for rotary control knobs which effectively precludes any inadvertent or accidental disturbance of control knobs settings when actuating or transporting effects pedals. There is a further need for an apparatus that enables the user to quickly adjust, on the fly, the control knob settings with the protective apparatus in place. There also exists a need for an apparatus that provides the ability to perform, without physically interacting with the apparatus, visual monitoring and inspection of the knob settings. Finally, there exists a need for an apparatus which allows the ability to provide an easy retrofit protective solution to the knobs of any effects pedal without modification to the pedal or its components.